Pentax Ricoh Imaging have developed the Pentax K-01, a mirrorless interchangable lens camera, designed by the world-famous Australian industrial designer, Marc Newson.

“In most mirrorless cameras, the fact that there’s no mirror is used to make the body slim, but we’ve used the mirrorless structure to increase the freedom for design. One feature I feel Marc Newson has really emphasized is the quality of materials. In this camera, precision-machined aluminum is used abundantly in all kinds of places, and serious attention has been paid to the surface finishing. The rubber components have also been given very distinctive forms.”

This camera’s imaging device is an APS-C size, 16-megapixel CMOS sensor, while the image processing engine is the newly developed PRIME M which offers greater movie capturing performance.

“We’ve used a large battery, like this. In compact cameras, battery life is often a problem. But we’ve enabled users to keep shooting for a long time, by using a large battery, and a sensor and image processing engine that have low power consumption. And we’ve achieved this while delivering the same basic performance as an SLR.”

This camera uses the K-mount originally used in Pentax’s 35mm film SLRs, so customers can use lenses they already own. In addition, Marc Newson has also designed the world’s slimmest fixed-focal pancake lens, which was announced along with the K-01.

One other feature of this new model is HDR Mode, which takes three photos consecutively with different exposures and combines them into one photo in the camera.

“This setting was previously chosen from the menu, but now, it can be set just by turning the dial to HDR Mode. Also, on this setting screen, you can choose exposure settings like HDR Auto, which makes it easy to take photos without losing detail in white or black areas. You can also choose settings that give your photos a more dynamic touch, such as making white and black areas stand out or making the colors more intense.”

“This camera is not only for people who want to take beautiful photos, but also for people who care about design.”

In Japan, the K-01 will be released in mid March. It will be available in three color combinations: all black, black & yellow, and black & white.

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